The Origin of "Huang Kuai" Coffee - Are "Huang Kuai" and Geisha Coffees from the Same Origin?

(Left is Sidamo·Horse Champion Coffee, right is Panama·Geisha Coffee)

FrontStreet Coffee suddenly recalled that during the peak popularity of Horse Champion, there was a rumor circulating online: Horse Champion is top-tier Geisha! Now that information about Horse Champion is completely "exposed," everyone can easily identify the truth of this statement, but at that time, people were indeed confused. The reason this rumor spread has something to do with Geisha's other name—"Geisha."

Geisha, Another Name for Geisha in China

In 1931, Geisha was discovered in a forest in Ethiopia, but at this time, Geisha did not cause any ripples. It wasn't until 73 years later, in 2004, when Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda used Geisha varieties obtained from Costa Rica to win the BOP competition championship, that Geisha became known to the world! Consequently, in the following years, Geisha almost became a necessary "championship-winning bean" for major estates and competitors in competitions.

Because Geisha and "Geisha" in English are the same word, our Taiwanese counterparts directly translated Geisha from English, calling it Geisha. However, people later discovered that Geisha has a dual meaning in Ethiopia: one refers to a specific area in southwestern Ethiopia, and the other refers to the coffee varieties from this specific area. Therefore, in 2006, when Mr. Yuan of Kalomen Coffee first imported Panama's Geisha to mainland China, he named it "Geisha."

What are the Representatives of Top-Tier Geisha Coffee?

Many customers at FrontStreet Coffee, when discussing Geisha, cannot avoid the two "labels" on the blackboard: one is Hacienda La Esmeralda's Red Label Geisha, and the other is Geisha Village Estate's Gold Label Geisha. Due to higher raw bean costs, FrontStreet Coffee specifically distinguishes them with corresponding pour-over prices, "75/cup" and "60/cup" respectively, which has also attracted the attention of many friends, especially those who have long heard of Geisha's fame but have not yet had the opportunity to savor its taste.

These labeled Geishas mentioned by baristas are named to highlight their high grade. Whether it's the Red Label and Gold Label discussed today, or the subsequent Green Label and Blue Label, even if we can't distinguish their hierarchy by looking at the prefixes, we certainly know: this X-label Geisha from XX estate should be of a higher grade than ordinary Geisha, and of course, possibly more expensive. In fact, this "label" terminology only appears in Chinese contexts. In other words, when we revert to their English names, you might not recognize who is who, or who is superior to whom.

Hacienda La Esmeralda's Red Label Geisha, whose original name is "Esmeralda Special," translated to Chinese as "Esmeralda Special Selection," is the highest quality Geisha coffee beans sold by this estate. It not only requires a cupping score of 91 or above, but each batch also comes with detailed "birth information." The "red" in Red Label is taken from the background color of this product's trademark. The same applies to Hacienda La Esmeralda's Green Label and Blue Label, aiming to make it easier for domestic consumers to remember and distinguish them.

Similarly, Geisha Village Estate's Gold Label Geisha also has its English name "Rarities," which translates to "rare treasures." Simply put, it's the highest grade Geisha (non-auction batches) launched by Geisha Village. The "gold" in Gold Label is also taken from the background color of the product's trademark. According to Geisha Village's official website disclosure, this grade of Geisha coffee accounts for only 10% of the entire estate's total production. Like Hacienda La Esmeralda's Red Label, each batch comes with plot information for buyers' reference.

Although this domestic practice of using background colors to replace original product names does make different grades of Geisha more accessible and memorable, it sometimes leads to mix-ups due to "color clashes." For example, in the Geisha production and sales systems established by these two estates, there are grades with red and green backgrounds, so there are two "Red Labels" and two "Green Labels" on the market. When ordering, remember to pay attention, or ask the barista which estate the Geisha comes from.

The Popular Champion for Many Years—"Horse Champion"

In 2017, the Buku Abel processing station in the Hambela sub-region of Guji, Ethiopia, won the TOH championship with a natural processed heirloom variety coffee bean! It has rich strawberry flavor, high sweetness, and smooth creamy texture. This bean is Horse Champion!

After winning the championship, the raw beans from this championship batch were imported by Beijing's raw bean trader. Then, in the same year's World Brewers Cup, China's runner-up Li Jianfei used this bean to overcome numerous obstacles, defeating many Geishas to win the runner-up position.

Therefore, this bean gained extremely high exposure all at once. Coupled with its excellent cost-performance ratio, it conquered all coffee friends, making it so that in every subsequent year, we could see new seasonal Horse Champion with全新的数字编号冲上热门！

What do Horse Champion 8.0 and Horse Champion 9.0 Mean?

I believe friends who often surf the internet should have seen numbers paired with Horse Champion, such as "Horse Champion 7.0," "Horse Champion 8.0," etc. So what exactly do these numbers mean? In our impression, coffee bean naming methods usually have traces to follow, and once established, they won't be changed, such as Geisha for variety, Blue Mountain for origin, Gotiti for processing station, etc. But Horse Champion is particularly special. Like Apple's iPhone, it needs a new "version name" every year to be launched. Why is this?

In fact, before this bean was called "Horse Champion," it only had an English name "Hambella," translated as "Hambella." To put it bluntly, what we call "Horse Champion Coffee" is actually a traditional natural G1 coffee bean from the Hambella region, with "Buku Abel" processing station being its more precise traceability information, located in Dimtu town.

After "Horse Champion" became famous overnight, to meet the surge in market demand, DW company established 5 independent coffee raw bean drying processing stations in Hambella Wamena Wereda, all located in the core production area of Dimtu town. Besides the original Buku Abel, four small villages including Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, Tirtiro Goye, and Seke Bokosa also joined the production of natural coffee beans. It is reported that at this time, the annual production of "Horse Champion" under DW company had reached tens of millions of tons.

Starting from the 2018 production season, Horse Champion (natural G1 coffee beans) from the same growing area and same processing station already showed some changes in flavor. FrontStreet Coffee discovered through cupping at that time, although the 2018 and 2019 Horse Champion had flavors similar to the 2017 Horse Champion, they were inferior to the "first-generation Horse Champion" in aspects such as body and aftertaste.

Therefore, to continue selling this natural coffee from Hambella while making a certain distinction from the original version, domestic raw bean trading companies calculated from 2017 onwards and formulated X.0 suffixes for each subsequent year's batch. For example, the 2018 batch was called "Horse Champion 2.0," the 2019 production was called "Horse Champion 3.0 and 3.1"... Last year's release was "Horse Champion 7.0," and so on. This way, we can identify which year's batch the Horse Champion we purchased belongs to through this suffix.

Why Did People Think Horse Champion Was Top-Tier Geisha?

I believe everyone already has some answer in mind at this point—the reason is the name "Horse Champion"! Geisha's earliest name in China was "Geisha," and Geisha in Japanese culture is a title for artistic performers! Initially, they were just staff performing in entertainment venues, but people often mistook them for another profession in these venues. Therefore, to distinguish them from another profession in the venues, the name "Geisha" was created. And the top performers among Geishas would be given the title "Horse Champion"!

The reason this natural heirloom variety was named Horse Champion was to symbolize its ability to defeat Geisha and become the top-tier existence among beans! Then, through online dissemination, this statement evolved from "Horse Champion wants to defeat Geisha and become top-tier" to "Horse Champion this coffee bean is top-tier Geisha," which is somewhat laughable. To avoid further embarrassment, FrontStreet Coffee believes we need to first understand what "Horse Champion flavor" and "Geisha flavor" are, as well as the differences between them.

"Horse Champion Flavor" and "Geisha Flavor"

Horse Champion, if we look at it from the literal meaning, we might think it's a coffee with "overflowing floral fragrance." In fact, this is not the case. Horse Champion's floral notes are not particularly strong; instead, its fruit aroma is particularly prominent, such as creamy strawberry, mango, jackfruit, citrus, blueberry, etc. It possesses the unique mature tropical fruit flavor of Sidamo natural beans, often leaving a deep impression. Moreover, it was precisely this rich berry fragrance that made "Horse Champion" win first place in that year's TOH raw bean competition.

FrontStreet Coffee's new seasonal Horse Champion 8.0 shows a richer fruit character than 7.0 in its dry aroma, with dense aromas of guava, jackfruit, apricot, dried fruit, citrus, and pink floral notes. Upon entry, one can feel the interweaving of sweet and sour from multiple fruits such as dried mango, jackfruit, orange, and passion fruit. The juice feeling is clear, and the texture is round. As the temperature slightly drops, the sweet taste of water peach and the bright acidity of berries begin to emerge. After swallowing, one can feel a sweet aftertaste like drinking black tea, with very rich layers.

The reason Geisha can win the love of countless coffee enthusiasts is that, unlike the strong black coffee in traditional impressions, it's more like a cup of fresh floral and fruit tea. With rich fragrance and complex fruit flavors, it reminds people of a series of unusual aromas. At different temperatures, one can feel delicate texture and sweet and sour fruit flavors filling the entire mouth. Geisha's such extraordinary flavor characteristics are enough to make it the "ceiling" in the mouths of many coffee enthusiasts.

Today, besides Panama, we can also drink Geisha coffee from countries such as Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Colombia, and Guatemala in many coffee shops, each with its unique flavor profile. If you're tasting Geisha coffee for the first time, FrontStreet Coffee suggests starting with Panama, where Geisha became famous. Panama's coffee estates have more planting experience with the Geisha variety, and their unique Geisha flavors are more representative.

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